


The Box

by Keiko Kirin (sakana17)



Series: Steak [1]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-09-15
Updated: 2000-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-03 03:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakana17/pseuds/Keiko%20Kirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trapped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Box

**Author's Note:**

> For Lynn. Thanks to L and K for beta-reading and lots of help; thanks to Gwyn for getting me to try third-omniscient narrative.

The landscape around the stargate was dull, flat, dusty. Far in the hazy distance were mountains. No signs of habitation, except for the gate and four low, stone platforms near it. As the SG-1 team fanned out from the gate, Colonel Jack O'Neill scanned the horizon.

"Looks pretty dead to me. What do you think, Carter?"

"It's hard to say."

O'Neill took another look at the empty landscape. "Come on, kids. Let's pack it in."

Teal'c and Carter slowly headed back to the gate. Daniel, however, was hunched over one of the platforms, brushing away sand and dirt from the top.

"Come on, Daniel," Jack called. "We're going home."

Daniel took out his notebook and jotted down some notes. "Wait. Just a minute. This is very interesting."

Jack glanced back at Teal'c and Carter, who were waiting patiently by the DHD, and marched forward. "Daniel, I said now."

But Daniel wasn't listening. He'd unshouldered his backpack and stepped onto the platform. He stood there, scribbling away in his notebook. Jack reached him and stepped up next to him. "Home." He grabbed Daniel's pen. "Now."

Daniel looked up, protest on his lips, and the world turned black.

\-----

Black. Cool stone surface. These were the only sensations registering.

Jack blinked several times, trying to focus in the dark, but there was nothing to focus on. He violently shook his head. "Daniel?"

"Jack?" Daniel's voice was close.

"This may be a strange question, but can you see anything?"

"No. You can't, either?"

"No. Are we blind?"

"Wait." After a moment there was a tiny blue glow coming from Daniel's wrist. Daniel held up his backlit watchface. "Can you see this?"

"Yeah. So we're not blind. Now where the hell are we?"

The blue light disappeared. "I think we're inside. It's cooler here than it was on the platform. I don't feel any wind. I don't remember how we got here."

"Me neither. Let's get out of here." Jack stood -- he also didn't remember sitting down -- and took two steps in the blackness.

"Oof!"

"Sorry."

The blackness around them was impenetrable. Rubbing his thigh where Jack had inadvertently kicked him, Daniel stood up and fumbled in his pockets for his pen light. He pulled it out and switched it on, flashing it around. There was Jack, frowning and squinting at the light. There was the floor, grey and smooth. Daniel aimed the light across the floor and followed it a short distance to a wall. The light travelled over the wall, also grey and smooth, to the next one, then the next, then the last. Daniel made the circuit twice.

"There's no door."

"There's gotta be a door."

Daniel walked close to the wall, and ran his hand over the stone, looking for any imperfections or indentations.

"This is ridiculous," Jack said. "We have to get out of here... Carter? Teal'c?"

Daniel heard the rustling of Jack's jacket. "Carter. Teal'c. Come in if you read. Daniel, try yours."

Daniel passed the pen light to Jack and tried his radio communicator. "Sam? Teal'c?"

No answer. The silence seemed to make the room even darker.

Jack held the light up, and circled it around. "Great. Just great. What the hell is this place?" Jack pointed the light up, but they still couldn't see the ceiling. He aimed it at the walls again.

"No inscriptions," Daniel pointed out.

"Yeah, I can see that. Any guesses?"

"Well..." Daniel cleared his throat. "It could be a trap of some sort."

"Ya think?" Jack walked over to one wall and ran his fingers along it. Perfectly smooth, no seams or crevices or cracks. "What kind of trap? Why?"

"There was something interesting on that platform, but I didn't get to read all of it. Something about the 'gemstone of night' and a 'portal that must be protected'."

"The stargate?"

"I think so, yes." Daniel's voice moved off. Jack flashed the pen light over and saw him following the opposite wall, searching with his fingers. They covered each wall at least twice, as far as they could reach, down to the floor. Jack directed the weak light beam over the floor and crouched down to begin searching. Daniel joined him, crawling on hands and knees.

Halfway through the second pass over the floor, the pen light went out. Jack shook it, clicked it on and off, sighed. "Battery's dead. I don't suppose you brought replacements."

"There are some in my ba-- oh."

"'Oh?' What does 'oh' mean?"

He heard Daniel sigh. "There are batteries in my backpack, but my backpack isn't here."

"What do you mean it isn't here?"

"I took it off. It was heavy."

"'I took it off. It was heavy,'" Jack mocked. "That's just peachy. We're trapped in here with nothing but whatever's in our pockets."

"I couldn't have foreseen this," Daniel said testily. "And sarcasm isn't going to help us find a way out of here."

"You have a better idea?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Maybe there's a trapdoor in the ceiling that we fell through."

"We don't even know how high the ceiling is."

"You could lift me up. I'll see if I can reach it."

"All right," Jack grumbled. "I'll be over by the wall."

"Which wall?"

With a sigh of frustration, Jack stood up and felt around for Daniel. His fingers found fine, soft hair, a brush of cheekbone, finally rested on Daniel's shoulder. Jack urged him to his feet and led him to the first wall Jack walked into. Jack crouched low. "Okay. I'm ready."

Daniel fumbled to get a foothold, kicking Jack's jaw twice with his heavy boots. When he was precariously balanced on Jack's shoulders, Jack slowly stood up, bracing himself against the wall.

"Can you feel anything?"

Daniel slid his hands over the smooth stone, reaching up as far as he could. "No... Wait. Yes. There are holes in the wall along here. There's air coming through them."

"Any light? Can you see anything?"

"No. I can just feel them. Each hole is about two inches wide. There's a row of them."

"What about the ceiling?"

Daniel strained to reach further, stretching his fingers. "Can't reach it."

He kept his hands flat to the wall as Jack crouched again. Jack helped guide his feet this time, until he'd awkwardly slid off Jack's shoulders. Daniel sat down heavily on the stone floor.

"Guess we wait it out," Jack said. He sounded calm, optimistic. Daniel heard more rustling -- zippers, velcro, snaps -- and realized Jack was inventorying his pockets. Daniel started doing the same. He had a pen, pencil, dusting brush, notebook, Swiss army knife, radio communicator, canteen three-quarters full of water, battery pack for the video camera he'd left in his backpack, and four and a half nutrition bars.

"Four and a half?"

"I didn't have breakfast this morning," Daniel said defensively.

Jack had a normal ration of two nutrition bars, plus a nearly full canteen, sunglasses, binoculars, radio communicator, ammunition clips, multipurpose field knife, and Daniel's dead pen light. He also had the assault rifle he'd been carrying.

"It must have been a trapdoor in the ceiling. From the platform you were studying. But why?"

"Maybe it's part of protecting the gate," Daniel said distractedly. He was thinking of Sam and Teal'c. What if they climbed the same platform and fell into the trap with them? Then they'd all be trapped. He just hoped they had seen what happened and were working on a way to open the trapdoor. The inscriptions on the platform probably explained it all. If only he could have deciphered them in time.

"Why weren't we hurt when we landed?" Jack said. "We couldn't reach the ceiling, and that's quite a fall. What, over fifteen feet?"

Daniel thought it over. "Maybe it's not a trap after all. We've searched all around this room and didn't find any skeletons or other remains. Maybe it's a holding chamber, an anteroom of some sort. Maybe we didn't fall, but were conveyed here."

"By what? And if it's an anteroom, why are there no doors? No lights?"

"The planet seems deserted," Daniel mused. "Maybe it's just not working the way it's supposed to."

"Or," countered Jack, "maybe each of those four platforms is a trap, and we were just lucky to get an empty one."

Irritated by Jack's pessimistic theory, Daniel took off his glasses (not needed in this blackness, anyway), tucked them safely away, and rubbed his eyes, thinking about the inscriptions on the platform. Trying to remember each one, trying to remember everything he'd written down.

As Daniel fell silent, Jack stood up and paced around the chamber, willing Carter and Teal'c to find the entrance and get them out. As soon as he'd mentioned the possibility of the other platforms being traps, he'd regretted it. Sam and Teal'c could be locked in another room like this, separate, unreachable. He shook those thoughts away. It wasn't worth thinking about.

Jack stopped his pacing and leaned against the wall. If he could see, he would be staring up at those holes Daniel had discovered. A means to pipe in air, which meant whoever was trapped in here was meant to survive. Unless... could also be a means to pipe in poisonous gas. Perhaps some toxic substance that also ate flesh and bone, explaining the lack of previous victims' remains. But if that were the case, why hadn't he and Daniel been killed yet?

Jack spared a blind glare at those holes again, shoving these depressing thoughts aside, and paced to what he approximated was the center of the room.

"Hello," he called, expecting an echo. Instead, it was as if the sound were eaten and swallowed by the darkness. The hairs on the back of Jack's neck prickled. He went to sit by Daniel.

"Remember anything else about those inscriptions?" he asked, and was surprised at Daniel's voice coming from across the room as he replied, "Not yet." Jack realized he had no bearings in here. The room was small, but in the pitch black, disorienting. He ran his hands down his face, leaned against the wall, and waited. For something, anything.

\-----

The first Daniel knew that he'd fallen asleep was his dream: three rust-colored forms emerged from the darkness and stepped close to Daniel, tilting their elongated necks and staring with dull, lifeless eyes into his face. When Daniel tried to speak, all his words were swallowed, disappearing into the black as quickly as he said them.

Daniel woke up, jerking his head up. Still in the black, still trapped. His dream had seemed so realistic it took him a moment to confirm that there were no beings standing in front of him. He stretched his arms out and felt black nothingness. He held his breath and listened to deafening silence.

"Jack?" he whispered.

"Yeah?"

Daniel relaxed. "Nothing. I think I fell asleep." He checked his watch, momentarily surprised by how bright the indiglo on his watch seemed. "We've been in here almost three hours. What do you think Sam and Teal'c are doing?"

"Finding a way to get us out of here." There was something in Jack's voice that sounded unconvincing. Before Daniel could wonder about it, Jack said, "If they've gone back to Earth, Hammond will send a rescue mission."

There was a moment of silence.

"I think the inscriptions on the platform are critical to explain how and why we got here. I've been trying to remember everything I saw. There just wasn't enough time to write it all down, to memorize it."

Jack hoped that wasn't a hint of reproach in Daniel's voice, but just to make sure he said, "If you had just come when I called you, and not climbed onto that damned platform..."

"Oh, of course. It's all my fault again. For doing what I'm supposed to be doing -- examining artefacts and putting them in context with other cultures." Jack could just picture Daniel's hands gesturing as he said this, and his wide-eyed, exasperated stare. He'd encountered this state of Daniel many times before. He waited for Daniel to calm down.

Slow moments later, Daniel said quietly, "You really think that, don't you? That this is my fault."

"Well... you didn't obey my order, did you?"

Daniel made a sound of disgust. "You act like there was some sign on the platform that said, 'Don't come any closer or you'll fall into a trap.'"

"Wasn't there?" Jack asked cuttingly.

That was going too far. Daniel's silence was, somehow, damning. Jack wished the words back, but too late. Besides, he was right, and Daniel knew it. Give Daniel an order, watch Daniel disobey it, get into trouble with Daniel as a result.

Jack folded his arms over his knees and laid his head down, calculating the length of time it would take to Carter and Teal'c to search for them, decide they were missing, return to SGC, get Hammond to authorize a rescue mission, organize the rescue team, come back, find a way in. Assuming nothing else was going wrong. Assuming Sam and Teal'c weren't also trapped somewhere. Assuming that whoever built this trap hadn't ambushed them after Jack and Daniel had disappeared.

Jack's circular calculations and throbbing headache were interrupted by an odd rumbling. "What was that?"

"I told you I didn't have any breakfast this morning," Daniel sighed, and he still sounded pissed.

"Never skip your Wheaties, Daniel." Before Daniel could react, Jack asked, "Why didn't you, anyway?"

Daniel was busy weighing his hunger against Jack's disapproval if he broke into their limited supply of nutrition bars, and didn't immediately register Jack's question. He decided that he was more useful to Jack if he weren't diminished by starvation, so he went ahead and fished out one of the bars. Over the crinkle of unwrapping he replied, "I overslept. I didn't want to be late for our briefing, so I didn't stop for breakfast."

"Late night?"

Daniel vaguely wondered why Jack was interested, but concluded there was probably a hidden disapproval in there somewhere. Some unwritten rule he'd broken, some obscure military code he'd transgressed by not going to bed before twenty-three hundred hours. "Hm," he answered non-commitally between bites.

"What kept you up so late?"

Daniel decided Jack's questions were driven by a desire for conversation. He could empathize. This cold, black space with its heavy silence was oppressive. If Jack weren't here, Daniel would probably be going mad by now, trying to find a way out.

Nevertheless, he wasn't going to give Jack an opening for some crack about his obsessive scholarly habits by frankly admitting he had been up all hours engrossed in a newly translated text he was particularly proud of but which had, unfortunately, no useful purpose for the Stargate Project. So he just said, "What do you think?"

"Ah."

Daniel inwardly sighed. That 'ah' said it all.

\-----

It was now past the time SG-1 was due back on Earth. Jack had to conclude that Sam and Teal'c hadn't returned on their own, possibly because they'd also been trapped. Soon the general would be taking a risk assessment for a rescue mission. Jack had every confidence that everything would be done to save them, but he also knew the project was more important than an individual team, even this team. Without knowing what was going on with Sam and Teal'c, Jack couldn't guess how the general would decide. He just had to trust that the decision would be best for them all.

What frustrated him the most was being unable to bust his way out. He had his assault rifle, he could try blasting at the wall, but it was solid, hard stone. There was a danger of ricochet, and next to no chance of penetrating the wall. And even if they could, no guarantee there was an escape route on the other side.

He and Daniel could trace the chamber for a door again. The thought made him weary. In fact, he was damned tired suddenly. He didn't want to fall asleep, but the blackness pressed in around him and made him dull. He closed his eyes and stretched out over the floor, and quit fighting sleep.

A sour breath woke him up. Was that Daniel? What on earth had he been eating? But when he blinked his eyes open, he could actually see something in front of him, and it wasn't Daniel. It was a shape, almost red, almost brown, with an elongated neck and large, unreadable eyes. Jack backed away from it, but it followed him. He noticed there was more than one shape, there were several. Where was Daniel? What had they done with him?

Jack jerked awake and opened his eyes. Same blackness. No shapes. He listened. Over his own heartbeat, he could hear steady, even breathing. Had to be Daniel. Had to be.

But what if it wasn't? That dream had seemed too real. Jack reached out and touched something solid, but soft, yielding to his fingers. He felt around with his fingertips, but could make no sense of it, so he groped around some more. Just as he realized his hand was on Daniel's mouth, Daniel bit his little finger.

"Hey!" He snatched his hand away.

A very groggy, "Huh? What? What's the matter?"

Jack would have looked at Daniel suspiciously, if he could see him. "You just bit my finger."

"No. I did?"

"Yes, you did."

"I must have thought... it was part of my dream."

Jack wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to his next question, but he asked anyway, "You were dreaming about biting my fingers?"

"What? Uh, no. I was dreaming I was eating a hamburger with everything, and french fries... Mmmm, I can just taste it now..."

Jack could, too. He said crisply, "Can't you think of anything other than food?"

"I can't help what I dream about. And you did ask."

Jack sat up and rubbed a hand over his face. "Better dream than mine, too," he muttered.

"What was yours about?" Daniel was shifting around; Jack could feel him moving and was surprised that he was so close. It was hard to gauge distances in this blinding black. Daniel sat up next to him, and their shoulders touched. There was something reassuring about that, especially after his dream. In this lasting, suffocating darkness, Jack felt that they needed to stick together.

They'd seen every inch of the room that they could see when they had Daniel's pen light, and hadn't sensed any other presence but theirs, but there was still some danger, some threat that could not be identified, beyond the very real possibility of starving to death before anyone found them.

"Jack?"

Daniel nudged Jack's ribs, wondering if Jack had fallen asleep again. There was something draining about this place, stealing their energy away. He'd come to the conclusion that it was either a trap to keep people away from the stargate, or it was a prison of some sort. It was certainly designed in such a way to keep its inhabitants oppressed. And unless there was a trapdoor in the ceiling, he could see no way of getting food in, so it was a last stop for whomever it was constructed for. The lack of physical remains was a bit hopeful; on the other hand, maybe so much time had passed, all that was left was dust.

He brushed his palm over the floor. Perfectly smooth. So, no dust. He started to contemplate that in relation to his theories, when Jack said, "There was somebody in here. Some creature. Long neck, big eyes. And I couldn't find you."

Why did that sound familiar? Daniel forced his thoughts back beyond his tantalizing, almost obscenely intense hamburger and french fries dream, and took a quick breath. "Was it sort of red? Brownish red?"

"Yes," Jack said slowly. From the change in his voice, Daniel could tell he was facing him. "You had the same dream?"

"Earlier I did, yes," Daniel said. "There were three of them in my dream."

Daniel's heart was beating faster now. He looked around the room, as if he could see. All he could feel was Jack's shoulder touching his, but he was absolutely sure: they weren't alone.

He took a calming breath and murmured to Jack, "I'm going to try to communicate with them."

"Daniel--"

Daniel stood up, turning slowly around. "Hello. I'm Daniel Jackson. This is Jack. We know you're here. We don't mean you any harm. We'll leave this place as soon as we can find a way out."

He waited, blinking in the darkness, willing their captors? companions? to show themselves. He pressed the indiglo on his watch and pointed it around, but the light was too weak, swallowed up by the black.

"Hello? We're peaceful. We're--"

"Daniel."

Daniel stopped, squinted at the dark, still hoping.

"They're not here."

"I think they are."

"Daniel. Can you feel them? Hear them? Smell them? Do you sense anything else in here but us?"

Daniel stood perfectly still, entirely focused on the room. "No," he said finally. He sat back down, and shifted until he could feel Jack's arm next to his. They were alone here, under no immediate threat, but he wanted to stay close. It reassured him. Whatever happened, they would face it together. Even if that whatever was eventually dying of dehydration, starvation, and boredom.

"Whoever they are," said Jack, "they wait until we're asleep. If they even exist, that is."

"I think the fact that we both dreamed them means they're real, in whatever form they present themselves."

"What does that mean?"

Daniel rubbed the bridge of his nose to fight an oncoming headache. "I don't know, exactly. They could project themselves into our unconscious. That would explain why we have to be asleep before we see them."

"Why would they do that?"

"I don't know," Daniel said tiredly, letting his head droop forward.

"Hey." Jack was shaking him. Daniel couldn't remember going to sleep, wasn't even sure if he had. His headache was getting worse. He felt around for his canteen and took a small drink of water.

"There's something about this place..." they both said. Daniel paused. "It's like... it's draining all my energy."

"Makes you sleepy. Thinking the worst."

"Yeah." Daniel almost felt relieved that Jack was experiencing it, too. That meant it wasn't them. It was something being done to them.

"We should fight it," Jack said, a welcome determination in his voice. "We should eat. It'll give us energy. Maybe that's the key. Stay energetic, alert, and they'll let us go. The rescue teams should be here soon, anyway."

Daniel already felt better. Jack was right. They could fight this thing, fight this awful place. He dug into his pockets for his nutrition bars. They each had one, and split a third, and spared a few sips of water. Daniel was still hungry, but did feel better than before. He wished there were inscriptions here, something to keep his mind active, something that could help them escape.

Jack was moving beside him. Moving a lot. It took him a moment to identify the movements as sit-ups. Exercise. Good idea. Daniel stood up and paced, jogged in place, anything to keep moving. The blackness didn't get any less black, but he didn't feel so tired now, so heavy.

He needed sound, too. "I think we need to talk," he said, panting from exercise.

"About what?" Jack sounded wary.

Daniel shrugged without thinking. "Anything. Just talk."

"Oh." Relief flooded that one syllable. Daniel frowned a little, puzzled by it. Jack chuckled. "Now's your chance. You're always trying to tell me something I'm not interested in hearing. Go for it. Jack O'Neill, captive audience."

Daniel smiled, remembering all the times Jack had waved away his explanations and theories. It was a tempting invitation. He shook his head regretfully. "No. That wasn't what I had in mind. It should be both of us. Otherwise, you might fall asleep on me."

"No!" Jack feigned indignance. "Never." Daniel could hear the grin in his voice. "Okay, what do we talk about?"

"I suppose mythology is out of the question."

"And folklore. And fairy tales. Any of that mumbo jumbo superstitious cra--"

"You want to talk, or want to argue?" Daniel swung his arms wide, stretching his shoulder muscles. He made a fist and punched the air. It was a satisfying gesture.

A few minutes passed in silence as they both searched for a neutral, mutually interesting topic of conversation.

"I tried a new kind of lure last time I went fishing..." Jack trailed off.

"That's exciting."

Daniel sounded less than enthusiastic. Jack felt him sit down again and deliberately touch his shoulder to Jack's in a way Jack was grateful for.

"Actually," Daniel said slowly, "there's something I've always wondered about..."

Jack held his breath for a moment. "What's that?"

"You and Sam."

"What about me and _Major_ Carter?"

"Maybe I shouldn't ask this."

"Maybe you shouldn't."

"So. It's true, then?"

"What's true, dammit?"

Daniel sighed. "Okay, Jack. Just forget it. I'll leave it alone. I just thought, if you wanted to talk about it... unburden yourself..."

"I have nothing to unburden myself about," Jack gritted out. "Carter and I are military personnel with an excellent working relationship. I am her commanding officer. She's a brilliant member of our team. What's there to talk about?"

"Whatever you say."

Jack reached over and grabbed Daniel's wrist, squeezing it tightly. "Look. Just spit it out, okay?"

He could feel Daniel react, then calm himself. He could picture the flash of challenge in Daniel's eyes. He waited. Daniel said coldly, "Forget I said anything." There was unmistakable hurt in his voice.

Daniel thought Jack owed him the truth. Jack acknowledged that he did owe Daniel the truth, but that didn't mean he wanted to blurt it out like this. Besides, that truth led to other, more unsettling truths. He'd lasted this long happily shoving them all aside, and he'd done pretty well, he thought. Why open that can of worms now?

If they died here right now, they would die with this silence between them, this distance. Jack didn't think he could face that, either. He released Daniel's wrist and slumped over, abruptly drained of energy.

"Jack? Jack, wake up." Daniel was rubbing his shoulders, gently shaking him. "Don't fall asleep."

He helped Jack stand up. Jack shook his head, blinking, trying to remember when he'd dozed off. They had been arguing. Jack stretched and walked around until the heaviness lifted.

"Hey. I'm, um, you know."

"Yeah, it's okay. None of my business, anyway." Daniel's voice moved as he also walked around.

"No, no. It's not that. It's..." Jack stopped for a moment while he tried to form an explanation for things which were inexplicable to himself, much less to someone else. Particularly when the someone else was Daniel. "It's complicated. You know. But you were... right, I guess... to see something." A thought struck him. "Is it that obvious? Is everyone talking about it?"

"Oh, no. No," Daniel said hurriedly. "At least... not that I know of. No one's said anything to me."

That wasn't very heartening. Jack paced in a circle. "Do they talk about... anything else?"

"Like what?" Daniel had stopped. Jack brushed him as he paced by.

"Oh, nothing." He changed the subject. "There was something I always wanted to ask you about, too. Since we're being so open and sharing right now."

"We are?"

Jack scrubbed his fingers through his hair and stopped pacing. He thought he must be right in front of Daniel, but it was hard to tell without groping around in the dark for him. "Hathor," Jack said quietly.

"You know all about that," Daniel said too lightly. He started pacing again. Jack felt the air move as Daniel passed him.

"I know some of it," Jack said. He shrugged. "If you ever wanted to talk about it... unburden yourself..."

Daniel stopped in front of him. He felt Daniel's breath blow in his face as Daniel made an exasperated sound. Before Daniel could say anything, Jack continued, "What I wanna know is, how come the snakes always go for you? What makes you such prime Goa'uld bait?"

Daniel laughed a short, quiet, ironic laugh. "I wish I knew. And what's with you and Thor, while we're at it?"

"_Thor_?" Jack moved around until he was leaning against a wall. "Oh, don't tell me you're thinking--"

"He named a ship after you. That's a pretty telling gesture." Daniel sounded amused.

"You're just jealous."

"Oh, yeah, Jack. I'm jealous of Thor all right."

Of Thor? Even though it was stupid little joke, Jack found that an interesting thing to say. "Name a ship after me, and maybe one day you'll get lucky."

"Uh... huh." That was Daniel's curious 'uh huh.' The tell-me-more 'uh huh'. Jack desperately wished he could see Daniel's face and read his look.

Daniel moved to stand beside him. Their arms touched. "How lucky are we talking about?" Daniel asked. He still sounded curious, but also amused. It was a joke. It was all a joke.

"It depends. How big is the ship?"

"It's..." Daniel cleared his throat. "Okay, maybe it's not the biggest ship in the universe, but it's a very nice ship. You know. Advanced. Modern. Smart. You could go pretty far with it."

Jack wondered if he was supposed to be reading into this metaphor what he _was_ reading into it. Probably not, he thought with a twinge of guilt.

"How far?"

"Oh... far. Really far."

"Too far?"

"Possibly. How far is too far?"

"Too far is when you get lost, and the ship goes out of control."

"Suppose the ship never did that. Suppose this ship had a built-in guidance system so you could never get lost."

"That's some ship."

Was it Jack's imagination, or had Daniel moved a little closer? His arm felt warmer, too. "But," Jack continued, "I don't trust anything that's built-in."

"No," Daniel sighed. "I see your point." His arm pulled away a fraction of an inch, and Jack missed its heat.

"Okay. Advanced, not very big ship--"

"But not too small, either," Daniel put in.

"Not too small ship with built-in guidance system. Hm, maybe worth a steak dinner."

"A steak dinner." Daniel sounded disappointed. "That's all?"

Jack wanted to stop himself from asking, but couldn't. "And why isn't that enough?"

"I get steak dinners now."

Jack was sweating. His stomach had twisted around itself. This was ridiculous. This was a joke, and not at all the hidden conversation he was reading into it. He moved until his arm pressed Daniel's.

"And you want something more than you get now?"

Some built-in guidance system, Daniel thought ruefully. Somewhere in the middle of his stupid joke hidden meanings had attached themselves to the repeated code words, and as long as the code was continued, it was safe. They weren't really talking about what they were talking about. But now. How could he answer Jack's question? It was a real question, and retreating behind code words would be cheating. Daniel couldn't do that.

But what could he say? Daniel was sweating. His stomach tied itself into knots. Would a simple "yes" suffice? If Jack didn't ask for clarification, it would. Jack would ask for clarification.

"Well..." he hedged. Cursed himself as a coward. "The steak dinners are awfully nice."

"Yes. Yes, they are." Jack's meaning was unreadable. Daniel longed for light, to try and interpret Jack's expression.

Abruptly, Jack's arm was gone. "Very nice," Jack repeated, moving away in the darkness. Daniel waited. And waited. And knew the conversation was over.

\-----

In the silence, it was impossible to fight sleep. By now, they knew they were going to die here. So many hours had passed. The risk must have been too great. Maybe SGC had lost too many rescue teams. They had about a canteen of water and three and a half nutrition bars left between them.

What Daniel resented the most was that it was going to be a quiet, slow death. He thought gruesomely that one of them could survive longer by resorting to cannibalism once the inevitable first death occurred, but, really, what was the point? Why prolong it? Maybe they should just take Jack's rifle and end it now.

But that required energy. Energy to find the rifle in the dark, energy to debate with Jack and convince him this was the best way, energy to do the deed. And all he wanted right now was sleep. He was blind, he was cold, he was more alone than he thought he could be with Jack.

They came again as he slept. Four of them now, all staring, until one of them reached out and touched his nose with a two-fingered hand of sorts. He couldn't feel the touch, but was aware of it. He opened his mouth, tried to tell them who they were, what they were, tried to plead with them to let them go or let them die quickly. Anything but this horrible black box and an agonizing death.

They left without any indication that they understood.

Next to him, Jack slept restlessly, refusing dreams until he was unwillingly pulled into them. They were waiting for him. Four, maybe five. One reached out and Jack ducked away from the touch. They didn't speak, didn't appear to have mouths, but he heard them all the same.

"This one fights."

"The other one, too, in its own way."

Agreement among them. Jack said, "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to leave."

They didn't seem to hear or understand. "It has been too long since ones like these came through the portal. The museum will be pleased."

"Listen to me!" Jack shouted. "We're not a threat. We'll go home as soon as you let us out of here."

They melted back into the darkness. Jack woke up, kicking and cursing his frustration.

"Ow. Jack?"

Daniel's hand rested on his chest. Jack opened his eyes and saw Daniel looking down at him, brow creased with concern. An overwhelming longing washed over him until he checked himself. He saw Daniel.

Jack leapt up from the floor, looking up at the ceiling, much higher than he'd imagined it would be. A crescent-shaped sliver of light broke the blackness, and the room was a dim grey. Daniel stood next to him and breathed, "At last."

"Colonel?" Carter called down to them.

"We're down here," he shouted up. The sliver grew wider and wider until there was a hole in the ceiling and bright sunlight streamed in. Jack squinted, but was unwilling to close his eyes and return to the dark.

It took some preparation until the rope was lowered. They stood next to each other, watching the ceiling because they couldn't stand to look away from the light. Finally Jack looked at Daniel. After a moment, Daniel returned his look.

"You know that ship we were talking about?" Jack said, trying to make it sound like a joke, but not too much of a joke.

"Yes." Something like worry flitted across Daniel's expression.

"It sounds like a very good ship. A ship I'd like to see sometime, get to know."

Daniel stared at him, and gave him the briefest of smiles, no more than a subtle quirk of the corner of his mouth. He looked back at the ceiling. "I think that can be arranged."

Jack tugged on the rope to test it and waited for Daniel to go first. Daniel took a last look around and said quietly, "Thank you."

"Thank you to who?"

Daniel gripped the rope. "To them, whoever they are, for releasing us."

Jack helped him get started up the rope. "They didn't release us. We were going to a museum or something. Thank Sam when we get up there."

"How do you know they didn't?"

"I just know. Can't you go any faster?"

Teal'c greeted them levelly as they emerged from the platform. "O'Neill. Daniel Jackson. It is good that you are back."

Jack clapped Teal'c on the shoulder. "Good to be back. I knew you two wouldn't desert us."

"Sorry it took so long, sir," said Carter. "Teal'c and I were trapped, too."

"One of the other platforms?" Jack saw out of the corner of his eye Daniel walking around the platforms, taking more notes. He briefly imagined tying the rope into a lasso. Archaeologist wrangling.

"Yes, sir," Carter explained. "When you didn't come back to the gate, we went looking. We knew Daniel had been looking at a platform. Guess we picked the wrong one. Before we knew it, we were stuck in a black pit with no way out."

Thankfully, Daniel had wandered back. He tucked his notebook back into a pocket. "How did you get out?"

"I used my staff weapon to blast depressions into the stone at intervals. These I climbed until I reached the ceiling. There was a forcefield around the entrance, but my staff weapon disrupted it and I was able to open the trapdoor," Teal'c said.

"I think the forcefield was what kept us from getting hurt when we fell," Carter added. "There was also something at the bottom, maybe some kind of restraint, like increased gravity, but more than that... I'm sorry I can't explain it, Colonel."

"You felt it too?" Daniel asked. "Drained of energy? Hopeless?"

Carter nodded.

Jack looked from Teal'c to Sam. "What did you guys do to counteract it?" He stole a sideways glance at Daniel, and didn't know what to make of the fact that Daniel had simultaneously stolen a sideways glance at him.

"I meditated," Teal'c replied.

"Teal'c showed me some meditation techniques," Sam said brightly. "And I kept moving. How did you defeat it, sir?"

"Oh, we moved. We talked. The usual." Jack wasn't surprised by Daniel's sideways glance this time.

(the end)


End file.
